Reviewers’ top nonfiction choices for 2013 have an R.I. twist

“Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865,” by James Oakes. (W.W. Norton) Oakes, the 2008 co-winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize for “The Radical and...

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Posted Jan. 5, 2014 @ 12:01 am

Erik J. Chaput

“Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865,” by James Oakes. (W.W. Norton) Oakes, the 2008 co-winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize for “The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics,” won the prize outright in 2013 with his provocative and engaging account of the destruction of American slavery. Oakes links the political initiatives of Lincoln and his Republican colleagues in Congress with the actions of Union generals and runaway slaves. The author demolishes the well-established argument that the Civil War was a war to restore the Union up until Jan. 1, 1863 and only then became a war to end slavery.

“Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence,” by Joseph Ellis. (Alfred A Knopf) In “Revolutionary Summer,” Ellis’ lucid and lively writing style is on full display. The author creates a beautiful tapestry for his readers, combining the military and political history of the summer of 1776 into a seamless narrative. Ellis maintains that the “political consensus that formed around American independence in June and July was driven by a widespread loathing of the loaming British invasion at New York” — something that George Washington believed would lead to “a very bloody summer” as he put it in a letter to his brother. Students of Rhode Island history will be particularly pleased with Ellis’ discussion of the relationship between Nathanael Greene and Washington.

“The Hanging and Redemption of John Gordon: The True Story of Rhode Island's Last Execution,” by Paul Caranci. (History Press) Paul Caranci, the state’s deputy secretary of state, has written the definitive account of the Dec. 31, 1843 murder of Cranston industrialist Amasa Sprague and the April 1844 trial and February 1845 execution of the Irish immigrant John Gordon for that crime. The Gordon trial was the Sacco and Vanzetti case of its day. Caranci offers an hour-by-hour account of what happened on the night of the murder — something that has never been done before. The author provides his readers with a detailed background of the Sprague and Gordon families, the growth of the Rhode Island economy and mill structure, and, most importantly, the toxic climate of nativism that was still gripping the state long after the Dorr Rebellion had ended.

“A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II,” by Maury Klein. (Bloomsbury Press) Klein is quite simply a Rhode Island treasure. He was a member of the history department at the University of Rhode Island for more than 40 years, earning numerous awards for his outstanding scholarship and teaching, before retiring in 2007. Klein, the author of 15 previous books, including the magisterial, “The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America,” has most recently produced what will undoubtedly become the definitive account of the creation of an “arsenal of democracy,” to borrow a phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

“Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin,” by Jill Lepore. (Alfred A. Knopf) Lepore chronicles the life of the beloved younger sister of Benjamin Franklin. With her trademark prose style and novelist’s flare for the dramatic, Lepore, a professor at Harvard University and staff writer at The New Yorker, has managed to accomplish what few historians would even dare attempt. Though Franklin wrote more letters to his sister “Jenny” than anyone else in his life, many were lost. “Her obscurity is matched only by her brother’s fame. If he meant to be Everyman, she is everyone else.” There is no better way to describe Franklin’s life as a rags to riches story. The son of a chandler, Franklin became by the middle of the 1700s, a celebrated printer, author, statesman, and scientist. His sister, in contrast, could barely spell. Lepore skillfully recreates the poverty stricken world in which Jane lived. Students of Rhode Island history will especially enjoy the author’s discussion of Franklin’s and Jane’s decades-long relationship with Catharine (Caty) Ray Greene of Warwick. Jane lived with the Greenes for most of the Revolution.

Mike Freeman

“The People’s Martyr: Thomas Wilson Dorr and 1842 Rhode Island Rebellion,” by Erik Chaput. (Kansas University Press) Though largely forgotten, Thomas Dorr led a failed rebellion to overthrow antiquated voting rights bestowed by pre-independence Britain. Chaput unearths this effort, richly detailing how Dorr’s struggles to grant the vote to un-propertied citizens engrossed “The Rhode Island Question” in the slave debate. In doing so, Rhode Island is seen as a microcosm for the country at large, with the industrialized northern tier representing progressive interests, and South and Newport Counties more indicative of the slave-supporting, agricultural South.

“For Adam’s Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England,” by Allegra di Bonaventura. (W.W. Norton) While the primary theme of everyday slavery in New England is not prominent until the final chapters, “For Adam’s Sake” is a terrific outlay of the work, luck and fantastic suffering that went into developing Colonial America. Set in New London, Conn., the book draws from the diary of Joshua Hempstead, a farmer and shipwright, plumbing the many hopes, frequent successes, and astonishing hardships that Colonial families endured.

“I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford,” by Richard Snow. (Scribner) Though certainly an encompassing biography, Richard Snow’s Henry Ford portrayal is additionally relevant to America’s current debates over capitalism. Henry Ford was a remarkable man as an inventor, business leader and character, and Snow misses nothing. A seemingly unconflicted soul, Ford, whether conscious of it or not, was highly unsettled, perhaps leading to the excessive spleen and paranoia during the second half of his life.

“Giap: The General Who Defeated America in Vietnam,” by James A. Warren (Palgrave/Macmillan) Vo Nguyen Giap died in October at age 102. He remains elusive, however, which is remarkable given that along with Ho Chi Minh he was more responsible for America’s loss in Vietnam than any other. Americans saturate themselves in why they lost the war, but rarely question why Vietnam won. Warren, a military historian and writer who lives in Providence, dives deep here, not only providing an adequate portrayal of Giap, whose spare textual legacy has been little explored, but by framing the arguably decisive differences between the Communist mode of war and the West’s more individualistic philosophy.

“Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America,” by Peter Andreas. (Oxford) Like Richard Snow’s Ford biography, Andreas, a professor at Brown University and a member of the Watson Institute of International Studies, provides both a fine historical work as well as intriguing gristle for America’s present-day economic frets. Starting with bans on quotidian Colonial products and ending with the current illegal immigration swivet, Andreas chronicles one case after another of American consumers subverting trade laws, and how those laws often fed the same societal woes they were drawn to inhibit.

Erik J. Chaput and Mike Freeman are frequent reviewers for The Journal.